Roadrunner Recap: Brad and Christine's Wedding

Meghan's only brother Brad and his fiance Christine got married on Friday last week.  We were invited back in March and we wanted to be sure and be there if any way possible.  It was and we were.
They were married at Brigden, Ontario and had the reception at the very nice Golf and Curling Club in Sarnia.

We arrived in Port Huron the night before and went through Customs and on to our campsite right near Cracker Barrel.

We drove over to Brigden in plenty of time for the service at the United Church.  

Brad & Meghan's father Bill joined us for a group picture.

Here are Bill and Marg before the service.

The ceremony went off without a hitch (as far as we could tell).  They had very nice words to each other in their Promises and it was all over in about 30 minutes.  It was a very nice service.  And then

Mrs and Mr Bradley Baker

A reception line formed outside for the happy couple.

Then on over to Sarnia and the dinner party and festivities

The wedding party sat together in the front and the rest of us were placed at about 15 tables in the very large room.

Marg and officating Pastor Chuck are discussing a point.

Later the parents of the bride groom spoke.  Here are Marg and Bill.

And there were many toasts, including one from Melanie and Kelly.

And lots of dancing.

And they cut the cake.

It was a beautiful day and a beautiful wedding with a very handsome couple.  Congratulations to Brad and Christine.

And thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Roadrunner Recap: Toronto

We are a little behind on posting so I thought I'd do a recap of Toronto.

But first, big welcomes to our newest Followers:

Patrick

Roger Radcliff

Thanks for following and I hope  you'll find plenty to comment about....

The last week has been quite a blur during our stay west of Toronto.  We were there to meet up with Adam after he finished his train trip across Canada.  We decided to show up a day early and go into Toronto and see some of the great city.   We were not disappointed.

We drove our Honda into a Go Train connecting point and rode into downtown Toronto to Union Station.  It was a beautiful day to walk around town and we did that for a couple of hours.

We went by the University of Toronto and then to Chinatown for dinner.  It was fantastic.

Then we found a place to get dinner before the baseball game.  

Meghan's list of goals included the train across Canada and having Peter take here to a Toronto Blue Jays game.  We met up with a lot of Adam and Meghan's friends and got tickets in the same section.

It was at the top of the stadium (Roger's Center) and right behind home plate.  We got to meet a woman doing a documentary and another group filming and interviewing Adam.  Some media folks have taken an interest in her story, their story, his story.  As their work gets finished it will be posted at fortheloveofmeghan.org

Since the stadium roof was open on the beautiful night, we could see the magnificent CN tower nearby.

The game was a blowout (10-2) Boston but it was a terrific evening and fun to see the gang again.  

We went back to the train station 

and it was crowded with some trains cancelled.  We finally got one after 10 and got back to the RV and into bed after mid night.  Pretty late for us.  But worth it.

Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles.  After a 'hiatus' of intermittent or no internet connection while in Canada we are back up and running!

Weak internet...

One of the hardest adjustments to the RV full-time lifestyle is figuring out what to do when we have no (or very limited) internet connectivity.

Do you know what I mean?  How about you?  What do you do?

We deliberately chose not to go to the expense of going with a Mobile Satellite configuration which may have  because we didn't think it would be cost effective.  We still think we made the right choice but we live with the consequences of that choice which is unexpected interruption of service.  I hate to let people down.  I want to post my blog regularly and it produces a little bit of anxiety when I can't.

We are still in Canada at a campground with intermittent connectivity so I don't know if this will actually work long enough to get this posted.  So I will keep it short.

We may miss another day of posting before we return to the US late tomorrow.  We will be in Port Huron for a couple of days and then head to Texas.  More on that later.

For now, please know I appreciate all you followers, readers, lurkers and curious folks... we will be in touch in a few days.  Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Niagara Spectacular Falls

First a very special welcome to our newest followers:

Carissa

Chuck and Anneke

And if you get a chance check our their web site and blog:  Carissa; Chuck and Anneke
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We drove two hours to Buffalo NY yesterday to see friends Jon and Barbara.

We made it across the Lewiston border crossing with minimal delay and drove through Niagara Falls.  In a text message to Barb, she indicated that we were going to see the Falls later in the day, so we didn't stay in town long and drove out to their place in Williamsville, NY about 20 minutes away.

Jon cooked pork tenderloin on the grill and we had a big Sunday lunch with two of their three girls along with their guys:  Sara and husband Matt, Katie and boyfriend Steve.  Kelly is also at the table in the backyard with Ed.  Melissa arrived later in the evening and we all had a nice visit.

After lunch we went into Buffalo near Buffalo State College where Kelly met friends from Virginia Beach, Eric and his friend Patrick.  Both are USNA grads and currently in the Navy.

We found separate coffee shops for about an hour so they could talk and we could talk.  

Then we proceeded over to the Falls.  This is where the Niagara River flows into the Falls and drops between 100,000 and 200,000 gallons per second over the edge.  It has been a longstanding source of hydroelectric power for the region since the 1950's.

We stopped for pictures along the river.

This is looking across the American Falls from the US side with the larger Horseshoe Falls in the middle distance on the Canadian side.

We went across the Rainbow Bridge, through customs and then walked around and took some pictures from the Canada side in the Clifton Hill area.

In some of the previous pictures you can see boats (Maid of the Mist) which passengers can ride from both the American and Canadian sides.  The observation tower on the American side has an elevator that goes to the bottom where passengers board.

It was a beautiful day for our visit and we had a great time with the Browns.

Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Have a great week!

Hello Toronto

I usually get up anywhere from 4:30 AM on and lately have been sleeping in to 5:30 or 6:00.  I got up about 6:00 and grabbed my laptop to go the 200 yards up the hill to the registration office where we can sit out side and get a good internet connection.

The main thing about yesterday morning was the temperature. It was 46 degrees!  Yikes fall has come!  Or maybe just a cold front passing through.  At any rate it was some interesting effects off the lake.

I sat on the front porch for about an hour, posted the blog and returned to get everybody up so we could leave.  We got underway a little after 9:00 AM and went almost into North Bay to find a gas station with easy access.  At $1.08/liter (4.4 liters to a gallon) the fuel costs were eye-popping for a 150 gallon tank.  I decided to put in $220 and only go a little past 3/4 of a tank.  That will get us across the border when we leave here.

We drove to Toronto and continued west on Highway 401 past Milton to the KOA.  It was a pretty easy 250 mile trip.  I konked out about 1130 and Pam drove for an hour while I took a power nap.  We arrived about 3:30 PM.We found a decent place and got set up and took it easy the rest of the day.  We watched some golf on TV and my man Phil didn't have a very good day.  

Pam had baked some lasagna a couple of days ago, so we heated it up and had a great meal.  After that we went for a walk around the campground and watched the NY Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies in a close one.

Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles today!  Niagra Falls here we come....

Roadrunner Financials - July 2010

Roadrunner Recap

We spent July with Adam in Michigan and Pam flew down to Texas to help Kelly drive her car to be with us for a few months.  She was grieving like all of us over the loss of Meghan except she was all alone in Texas.  She had gotten laid off earlier in the year and was still looking for a job.  Instead of her toughing it out alone in Texas she decided she could look for a job just as easily online and be with us.

So she and Ed and Pam arrived back at Haas Lake and then we headed to Tobermory Canada, Parry Sound Canada and we finished up the month in Lake Talon, not far from North Bay Canada.  We spent time with Bill and Marg in Tobermory at their cottage (while we stayed at Tobermory Village Campground), then moved on to the KOA at Parry Sound before going to Talon Lake to see Jeff and Tiffany and their family.

Good News Areas We Are Under Budget
We started out with a full tank of diesel and did not have to fill up do we were under budget there.  We had no big expenses either so we were $469 under budget there also.

Biggest Expenses
During the month we put plenty of miles on the car and were $192 over budget.  Almost double of our budget.  Our biggest expense by far was for campgrounds.  We blew our $25/night campground budgeted rate by double!  We were way over - like $856 over budget for the month.

Large One Time Cost Items
We took a fabulous glass bottom boat tour our of Tobermory Little Harbor and then another boat tour through the islands of Parry Sound.  They were both wonderful.  Our splurging cost us $307.

Monthly Average
Even though it seemed as if we put on a lot of miles during the month in Canada, we were only $43 over budget.  At $3,968.11 I thought that was pretty good.

On the other hand, our nightly average campground cost was $51.83.

On average, for the first two months of year number 2 on the road, we are $129 over budget.

There's another look at our financials for July.  Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles.  Until next time...

Fun in Mattawa

Jeff and Caleb were at the Roadrunner at 8:00 AM.  We drove into Mattawa to play golf and tee off a little before 9:30.  It was a nice 9 hole course that was not too busy and perfect for our day.  Caleb is 10 and just starting to play.  He has a great swing and lots of ability but doesn't play much.  He is more into baseball and made the all-star team earlier in the summer.

We all hit some nice shots.  Jeff sank a 6 and an 10 footer which were the longest putts of the day.  I had a better than average day bogeying only one hole on the par 37 layout.  

After that we went to a chip stand in Mattawa for lunch and met some nice RVers.  Jeff and Tiffany went to Miami University of Ohio so when he saw Brittany (I hope I got that right) with that on her T-Shirt, he talked with her mom and grandmother Ann.  Ann and her husband had the large Pace Arrow in the parking lot and we struck up a nice conversation.

They were happy to take a picture and I told them it would be on today's blog.  That's 3 generations of girls there.  

In Mattawa, Jeff looked for a faucet, some spaghetti sauce and chocolate chips.  While he was doing that I took a few pictures of the 'Statues of Mattawa'.  These are some carvings of people with historical significance in the early growth and development of Mattawa.

The town sits where the Mattawa and Ottawa rivers meet and it was an important stop for trappers on the Voyagers Canoe route  from the Great Lakes to Montreal back in the 1700's and early 1800's.

We got back to the cabin about 3:00 and it started raining pretty hard.  We all went off to our various spaces and some talked, did some work online and/or played cards.  We had a lot of hands of solitaire, 31 and hearts during the afternoon.

Tiffany made some chocolate chip scones that didn't last long!

Aaron is a Boy Scout and has about 7 or 8 merit badges.  He is working on the Cooking Merit Badge and prepared a feast for us.  We had spaghetti and meatballs that was perfect!

After dinner we all piled into the pontoon boat and went over to the campground for ice cream.  After that we had a tour of the Roadrunner and a group shot of the Trasks and Royces.  It was our last day here so it was nice to get a photo.

A little before dark, we said our goodbyes and I packed up the Roadrunner for travel.  The only thing left is to retrack the power cord and hose, and to hitch up the car.  Toronto is next on the itinerary!

Thanks for viewing and signing up to Follow.  Only a few more Followers to go before we hit the 150 mark...

That's all for the edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Have a great weekend!!